Anhydrous ammonia storage and transport are dangerous due to the toxicity of ammonia gas and the explosion risks of anhydrous ammonia. However, anhydrous ammonia is widely used as a nitrogen fertilizer. Even during regular operations, such the transfer of anhydrous ammonia from storage tanks to nurse tanks and the application of anhydrous ammonia to fields, there is a risk of injury to operators due to contact and inhalation. Additionally, anhydrous ammonia use in enclosed spaces (e.g., refrigerant applications), can cause fire and/or explosions. Thus, balancing safe storage and transport with expense and practicality is a common struggle.
Currently, anhydrous ammonia storage tanks include valves that can be manually actuated to shut off a valve in an emergency and excess flow valves. However, manual valves are difficult to reach emergency scenarios (e.g., operators may become quickly overcome by noxious gases during a leak) and/or may require an uninjured participant to manually actuate the valve. Excess flow valves are often not activated, and thus do not provide a fail safe in long pipe runs and are sensitive to valve sizing (e.g., over and under sizing valves can cause performance failures).